DARLINGTON, S.C.
A NASCAR Cup Series-high four wins in 26 regular season races and 263 laps led on Sunday night all came up a few late-race restarts, three positions and a single point short at Darlington Raceway for Kyle Larson.
Luckily, for the driver of the No. 5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, he’ll have the next 10 playoff events to try and find that one, extra marker.
Oh, and a points lead to buoy him as well.
It was a dominant performance from Larson on Sunday as he swept the first two stages and seemed poised to defend his 2023 Southern 500 win, claiming the regular-season points title to boot. However, chaos and multiple crashes in the final 50 laps shuffled the field and relegated Larson to a fourth-place showing to finish one tally shy of Tyler Reddick.
Larson entered the race 17 points back of Reddick and with the aforementioned two stage wins and resulting 20 bonus points, was positioned to complete the rally. However, with Larson leading, Carson Hocevar spun with 52 laps to go, bringing out just the second caution for cause.
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From there, three more yellow flags flew including a multi-car pileup with 22 laps left that collected Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, who’d kept his No. 24 Liberty University Chevy in the top 10 throughout most of the night. Byron settled for 30th.
With some drivers choosing to stay out on old tires, the front of the field was stacked up on restarts and it cost Larson, as he lost the lead to eventual winner, Chase Briscoe and couldn’t regain the track position.
“Just wish I maybe would’ve executed the restart zone a little better there and maybe the rest of the race plays out differently,” Larson said. “But I had the points on my mind, knowing how close we were with Reddick and the great day that we had going and the kind of average day he had going, I just didn’t want to get overly aggressive and take myself out of it too.”
After struggling throughout much of the night, Chase Elliott, who finished third in the regular season points standings, wheeled his No. 9 NAPA Gold Filters Chevy to an 11th-place finish. Alex Bowman rounded out the Hendrick Motorsports stable, finishing 19th in the No. 48 Ally Racing Chevrolet.
There were plenty of positive takeaways for the organization.
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First, all four Hendrick Motorsports drivers qualified for the 16-driver playoff field with the postseason set to begin at Atlanta Motor Speedway next Sunday. Larson will be the leader thanks to playoff points accrued for victories and stage wins throughout the regular season. He’ll be eight points clear of second-place Christopher Bell and 35 points above Bowman, Briscoe and Harrison Burton, who enter tied on the cutline in 12th. After three races, the bottom four drivers will be eliminated.
“That’s nice, especially when you go to a track as scary as Atlanta,” Larson said. “But that could be wiped out in an instant and I could be below the cutline after Atlanta, that’s just the craziness of the system. Just keep doing what we’ve been doing. Our car’s been really fast and our team’s been executing great so, just keep it up and hopefully, we can advance on through.”
Second, while Larson came up just short in the driver’s standings, the No. 5 team claimed a regular-season crown in the owner’s standings.
“That’s always good, that’s what pays the check at the end of the year,” Larson said. “Just proud of my team, proud of my pit crew and proud of the race car.”
Byron will begin his pursuit of his first Cup championship in fourth place, 17 points clear of the cutline. Elliott is now seventh, nine points above the cutline.